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		<title>Holidays &lt;https://y.st./en/opinion/holidays.xhtml&gt;</title>
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		<header>
			<h1>Holidays</h1>
			<p>And anniversaries</p>
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<h2>Holidays</h2>
<p>Holidays are incredibly arbitrary. To even observe them is to treat a single (or multiple in the case of some holidays) calendar day as somehow different than the days that surround it though. Is that day honestly any different? Not really. And yet this idea perpetuates that holidays are fantastic and that very specific actions should be taken on and around each holiday.</p>
<h3>Practicality</h3>
<p>Having nearly the entire workforce take the day off on a single day is highly inconvenient. You have the day off yourself, but there&apos;s errands that you can&apos;t even get done because most of the businesses are closed. Instead, a much better system would involve giving different people different days off so that you can use your days off to get done whatever you need or want to. If you want to stay at home, go out on a hike, or even hang out with friends and family, you can still do that. You may need to make sure that your days off overlap with theirs, but that&apos;s a small price to pay. However, if you need to run to the bank, you can do that as well.</p>
<h2>Anniversaries</h2>
<p>The problem with celebrating anniversaries is that you&apos;re not actually celebrating the day that an event happened; rather, you&apos;re celebrating a day that&apos;s exactly some number of years <strong>*after*</strong> the event. Celebrating the event again is one thing, but why do you need an arbitrary calendar date to to it on? This is especially true of ongoing things. For example, with marriage anniversaries, you no doubt intend to celebrate the fact that you&apos;re in a loving relationship, not the fact that you got together. There&apos;s no reason to celebrate on a very specific calendar date, as you&apos;re still in a loving marriage every other day of the year as well.</p>
<h3>Birthdays</h3>
<p>A birthday is just a very specific type of anniversary, so birthdays are just as meaningless as other anniversaries. When you celebrate a birthday, you&apos;re not celebrating the day that the person came into the world; you&apos;re celebrating the <strong>*anniversary*</strong> of that day! Besides, observing birthdays is incredibly morbid, when you think about it. With each birthday, that person draws another year closer to the grave. Is that <strong>*really*</strong> what you want to celebrate?</p>
<h2>Arbitrary celebration</h2>
<p>To be clear, I&apos;m not against arbitrary celebration. By all means, celebration is a great way to unwind! However, arbitrary celebrations should be labeled as being such. For example, if you want to throw a party, just call it a party! If you want to hold a family gathering, just do it! Don&apos;t try to claim that you&apos;re doing it because of a particular holiday and don&apos;t go looking for some supposedly-meaningful calendar date to attach it to. Just find a date that&apos;s convenient for you and perhaps convenient for those that you wish to attend. Don&apos;t expect the whole world to celebrate with you on the same day. And most importantly, don&apos;t try to claim that arbitrary calendar dates hold any more value or meaning than others.</p>
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